Twist And Shout

Variation 2.8.1 is the tenth pressing and was released only in STEREO for the first time. This pressing is recognized by its new Capitol pressing plant markings (the larger 39mm pressing ring) on the now 4 year old orange label design.

Availability

This variation was available between late 1976 and 1977 (for approximately a few months) when the label design changed to the "retro" purple label - (see next entry). It is nonetheless a pretty common variation.

General Information

This first North American Beatles album was in fact the band’s second album, and was identical to its UK counterpart (except for additional news quotes on the front cover) released 3 days prior. The Canadian album was also made from master tapes sent from the UK head office, so it features the exact same audio as the UK mono pressing of With The Beatles (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2)

This pressing was only available in Stereo.

Cover

The jacket for this very first pressing is unique, in the sense that it is the only variation that used this type of construction for its cardboard frame. Up until early April 1964, the inner seams (inside fold of the cardboard jacket) have a curved indentation in the centre. Modern Album used this jacket template until April 1964, from which point the inner seams were then straight. This original curved inner seam measured 10 mm high.

Covers up to the mid 70s used a “front slick” construction (a larger back slick, usually printed in black and white, that wrapped around the front of the cardboard cover, onto which a smaller color front slick was glued, creating a white frame effect all around the front image). Both front and rear slicks were printed by Parr’s Litho in Toronto (see the printer’s logo on the bottom right of the cover) and sent to Modern Album for assembly.

The front cover added news quotes to the original UK cover design, but the back cover remained identical, except for added Canadian legal and manufacturing information.

This is the VERY FIRST official Beatles album released in North America!

The rear of the jacket was identical, complete with sleeve notes by Tony Barrow.

Original covers featured the words PRINTED IN CANADA inside a box at the bottom of the back cover, along side the Monophonic playing instructions.

First pressings are distinguishable by the cover frame construction that featured 10 mm wide CURVED inner seams.

The top right features the T-6051 catalog number and a full dot denoting the Mono pressing placed just over the 6000 series logo.

As stated earlier, the original release of this album used the "front slick" assembly method, meaning that the black and white back slick is larger and wraps around the front, over which the smaller color front slick is pasted, making a noticeable white frame around the front cover. The proper "high quality" construction would have been the Back Slick construction to have the front slick wrap around the back, ensureing the front image would cover the whole surface of the jacket.

Using the front slick approach was a way for Capitol to save money since producing smaller color front slicks cost less than producing the larger slicks that would wrap around the back.

Slicks were printed by Parr's Litho in Toronto and assembled onto the cardboard frame by Modern albums. The distinctive Canadian Parr's logo appears at the bottom right corner of the front cover.

Pressing Information

Capitol of Canada subcontracted the RCA pressing plant in Smith Falls (Ontario) to manufacture the records. RCA Toronto cut a set of lacquers from mono master tapes sent from EMI’s UK head office (source: P. Hemmingsen, The Beatles’ Canadian Discography part. 2). These lacquers were then used to create many different generations of stampers in the years to come (until 1975), with matrix numbers up to “dash 6” (XEX 447-6). This first pressing has “no dash” matrix numbers (XEX-447 and XEX-448).

These copies feature the"no brackets" rainbow label (see perimeter print at the bottom of the label: "Manufactured in Canada by Capitol Records of Canada" with no brackets around the word CANADA). It is not known exactly how many copies were prepared for this first run, but the original stampers being still good after this limited first run were recommissioned in early 1964 when Beatlemania officially skyrocketed, until a second set of stampers (“-X”) were needed. These first “no dash” stampers seem to have been used until later in 1964, where “-2, -3, -4, -5 and -6” stampers were then used instead.

Packaging

Early editions from late 1963 were shipped in loose poly bag wrap, with or without a red and white Capitol / Pathe paper LP inner sleeve (apparently designed by Paul White).

Narrow and Wide stereo mixes

What is the difference?

Still today, there is much talk and confusion about the stereo mixes of the first three Canadian Beatles albums on Capitol Records (Beatlemania, Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally). Being issued before Capitol USA signed a distribution agreement for the Beatles catalog, these three albums were assembled and managed solely by Capitol of Canada, and therefore never suffered the "Dexterized" sound that Capitol USA imposed on the British catalog in order to "Americanize" European material. Therefore, not being managed by the parent company, these albums were the only Beatles albums to remain available in mono until the mid 1970s, unlike the rest of the catalog that made the normal transition to stereo in 1968.

Unfortunately, the transition of the three Canadian albums seemed a little bit forced, witnessing little to no effort into choosing a proper sounding mix for these early "new" stereo releases. So, saying the Canadian Beatles albums did not suffer any "Dexterization" is not quite true as early stereo mixes of these three albums sounded extremely unnatural, and much closer to mono than one would expect from a stereo release — especially when the original UK stereo mixes already existed and would have been available.

A true stereo mix?

These first stereo mixes were so close to mono in fact, that still today, among collectors there remains a certain confusion as to when, and how these three albums made a proper switch to stereo. There is talk in the collecting community about narrow and wide mixes without a clear definition of what they are. To further add to the confusion, many copies are hybrids between the two narrow/wide mixes (or mono/narrow); all of this while some specific tracks remain in mono on official stereo releases until 1987 (like tracks from singles that were never mixed in stereo).

How rechanneled stereo is made

First, one needs to understand what the Narrow stereo mix is anbout. Fans and collectors have named it the narrow mix because it sounds exactly like that: narrow, with almost no separation between the right and left sound channels; ultimately adding only a little more "space" to the mix with processed echo and extreme EQ to create an IMPRESSION of stereo.

It is the opinion of the authors that the narrow mix are wrongfully called "stereo" because in reality, it is not a true stereo mix created by placing instruments on either side of the sound spectrum. The narrow mix is in fact a processed or re-channeled mono mix, similar to what Capitol USA called Duophonic stereo. This sound engineering "tour de force" consists of taking a mono track, and by boosting reverb (echo) on one side, and drastically changing the equalization on the other channel, it creates noticeable differences between the two sound channels (echo, brighter sound on one side, while having a boomier bass sound on the other), which creates a subtle ILLUSION of stereophonic sound.

These manipulations took place in the 70s, in the Canadian mastering studio, and have nothing to do with original mixes created by EMI in England. These narrow mixes seem a little bit inapropriate today, because of the odd audio results of course, but mostly because these techniques were often used when stereo mixes were unavailable or did not exist. In the case of these three unique Canadian albums, original stereo mixes already did exist at EMI because Please Please Me and With The Beatles had originally been prepared in stereo at Abbey Road in 1963. Collectors today can’t help but wonder why these original stereo masters were not used from the start, instead of trying to dupe listeners by forcing a stereo mix out of a mono track.

What does it mean for collectors today?

The result is definitely not unanimous, and although it technically is not mono anymore, these are not regarded as true stereo mixes by collectors, even though the label states it is a stereo release. The authors therefore prefer to talk about a "re-channeled stereo mix" than a narrow mix. Theses mixes usually have matrix numbers that bear both the new stereo number and the old mono matrix ("ST 6054 XEX-455-2" vs XEX-455 for example). Later true stereo mixes only have the new stereo number .

True stereo mixes then, do not consist in creating an illusion of stereophonic sound from a mono mix, but are instead tracks that were mixed in stereo directly from the multi-track recording session tapes, allowing engineers to place different parts of the recording from left to right in the sound spectrum. Although true stereo mixes could be made years after tracks were recorded (like it was the case with Anthology material, Love, or the recent series of remixes), these were usually made at the same time as mono mixes, prior to the record’s original release. Most Beatles tracks were prepared in both mono and stereo, although some rare singles that never made it on an album were only mixed in mono. The authors therefore prefer to talk about wide mixes as "true stereo mixes".

Capitol eventually corrected their mistake, and a few years later, offered fantastic sounding true stereo mixes of Beatlemania, Twist And Shout and Long Tall Sally. The later standardized Beatles catalog (US versions of the Beatles catalog) was made from US master tapes sent from Scranton or L.A., but these three unique Canadian albums were prepared from tapes sent directly from the UK head office, causing our versions of songs like All My Loving to sound much more like the UK mixes.

Making sense of the evolution of these different stereo mixes

Making sense of the different stereo mixes is a challenge, but the real challenge lies more in the identification of when they appeared, and when they were replaced by a newer mix. Capitol and their pressing subcontractors never wasted any production material and used pressing plates until they were worn out. Plates for both sides of an LP did not necessarily wear out simultaneously, causing many copies pressed during a transition period between new masters to be hybrids between two mixes. It seems that a clear desire to produce a uniform series of reissues only happened with the retro rainbow label in 1983. Indeed, only then was a completely new master made from a proper true stereo mix finally introduced. This new master is quite apparent when comparing the width of the dead wax on each side.

Below is a list of an average of transitions between mixes. As noted previously, there is no definite change between versions, and many copies offer a hybrid transisiton coupling of mixes. But this list below provides a good idea of what was available and approximately when they can be found:

Twist and Shout stereo mixes

• • Mono until 1976

• • Orange label 3rd, 1976 : Re-channeled stereo (some tracks in mono)

• • Purple label 1st, 1977 : Hybrid between re-channeled and true stereo

• • Purple label 2nd, 1978 : Re-channeled stereo (new master)

• • Purple label 3rd, 1980 : True "wider" stereo (many hybrids with earlier mix exist)

• • Retro Rainbow, 1983 (capitol) : Re-channeled stereo, (different master of earlier mix)

• • Retro Rainbow, 1984 (CBS & Cinram) : Proper new true "wide" stereo (new different master)